I'm going to Singapore. Where to buy DVDs?
 

Well not exactly going, but I have plan to go there in the near future. I was wondering where I can get cheap (and legit) DVDs there. I've been to HMV Singapore but the price is too high especially for R1 DVD.

I usually travel by bus or MRT there so route guide will also be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

I went to Singapore early this year. Prices at HMV is a joke. There are a few DVD stores in Sim Lim Square (3rd or 4th floor?) that have pretty good price. There are also chain stores like Sambawa (a mall store) and another that I totally forgot the name of (there is one on the ground floor of Funam IT Mall. There is another store that has lots of DVDs and CDs and it's right across the road from the City Hall MRT entrance (the one closer to the Funam IT Mall).

There are lots of what seems to me "bootlegs" that are openly sold in big stores. I spot Disney's "Cinderella" on DVD for $5 at a big supermarket in SunTec city and it's imported from Taiwan. They were demo'ing it on TV and it was subtitled in English. For all we know Cinderella is not even out on DVD worldwide!

Thanks. I returned from Singapore 2 days ago. I got a few DVDs off Sembawa (the one in Cineleisure building, the one that has 3 storey cinema, which is very nice. I watched a Japanese movie called Be With You there, but that's a different story). The price is not nearly as high as HMV, and their collection, although some of them are old, is quite comprehensive (they still have Image's Birth of a Nation) and the shop attendant is very helpful.

I did go to Sim Lim Square but I only make it to the 2nd floor due to time restrictions.

One more thing, I heard some people mentioning a DVD store called Gramophone. Anyone know where the store located?

I'm not from Singapore but I've been there many times.I think the best dvd shop is Gramophone.It's right across the road from the City Hall MRT station.Gramophone has another branch in Orchard road at the basement in a mall called the Paragon. Anyway,they offer good price of R1 and R3 dvds and they have huge stock of them.

Well I'm visiting Singapore for the second time this time (I'm at Changi at the moment waiting for my flight).

I found Gramaphone near Funan IT Mall (it's located a few blocks away from Suntec) and their collection is quite impressive. On the next day I found their other store on Specialty Shopping Center at Orchard, and I got Brazil Criterion Collection for quite a reasonable price, as well as some other stuff :D

One impression I got from Gramophone is their shopkeeper is more knowledgeable than those of HMV. And their price is a lot better so I'm pretty satisfied with them.

Hi eedoon,
I am from Singapore, I got most of my DVDs from HMV, BlueMax ( there's one at Suntec and plaza Singapura), Laserflair ( located at neighbourhood shopping mall like the parkway parade, sunplaza, etc). More and more R1 disc are coming in with the new censorship rating, now we are able to get those rated R movie.

Happy Hunting.

my tiny collections:
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&id=khwan

Well I should've mentioned that I was waiting for my flight home. :o

But anyway, I did found two Laser Flair shop the other day (one at Sim Lim square and the other is at Funan) and got a few good stuff over there, including The Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds Criterion Collection. They also have The Lower Depth there which I would've bought had I have enough money with me at that moment.

The one thing that I find not satisfactory is the R3 DVD which doesn't always list whether they're on PAL or NTSC. I bought an R3 Phantom of the Opera DVD last month on Singapore - there's no information about the video format on the back of the case - and I'm quite disappointed that it's a PAL DVD.

About the stickers, at first I'm quite annoyed about it because it's quite hard to come off. But the shopkeeper at Gramophone tell me to use Zippo liquid. I'm going to try that advice.

And yeah, nice collection you have there xavierwan, and welcome to DVD Talk. :)

Thanks eedoon,
About the stickers, I am also using Zippo liquid to remove them and it works very well.
As for R3 disc, I still perfer the R1 disc over them unless they were asia movies as R1 disc tend to be better in terms of audio & video. There's once when my colleague bought a R3 King Arthur and his comments was that the whole movie looks as if they were shot at night but my R1 king Arthur looks ok. Overall the quality of R3 still lag when compare to those R1 but of course R3 are more cheaper compare to R3. :p
Hope that you do visit Singapore more often.
Enjoy your dvds, cheers.

About the quality differences between R1 and R3, I think it vary between studios. So far I've been satisfied with R3 Warner release - most of them has good transfer similar to the R1 counterpart (at least from my monitor). And apart from the stripped off extra on a few of their title (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Easter Parade), I have nothing to complain.

Documentary DVD or VCD
 

Hi guys,
I am new to singapore. I am looking for documentary DVDs like "Walking with dinosaur", "Walking with beasts" etc. I went to city hall HMV could not find them. I gone through the above discussion, guys caould you please tell me where to get those DVDs and where those Gramophone, bluemax and plaza singapura located?

you can also mail me to [email protected]

Hi altfo. I have a map of Singapore which I obtained freely - if you're staying in a hotel you can get it in your hotel lobby (I got one from a long time ago). In that map you can find MRT route and detail of downtown area.

But if you have no such map, you can look for localty map in every MRT station. It only cover a few block radius but it's very helpful.

And for your guide:

Gramophone
One branch is located on Peninsula Plaza just across the exit of City Hall MRT station.
There's (at least) two branch on Orchard road. It's located inside Paragon building and Specialty Shopping Centre. Both are near the Orchard MRT station.

I saw a lot of Blue Max outlet but I think there's one outlet in Sim Lim Square. You can go there from Bugis MRT. You can also check Laser Flair while you're there.

Plaza Singapura is near Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It is also located on Orchard Road just a few blocks away from Paragon.



While I'm not much a fan of documentary, I think I saw a National Geographic section in Gramophone. I could be wrong though.

I hope this helps.

Thnz a lot eedoon. This weekend i will check it out. Recently i came across the site can.com.sg its an exellent site for guide on singapore city. I can spot any location in singapore with that site.

I gone to HMV last weekend i saw few discovery channel collection but they have only few collections for Documentary. This wekend i will checkout the stores u mentioned.

R u a singapore native? How long ur been in singapore? Whats ur name?


bye
keep in touch

You're welcome. You can also look for a chain store called "Sembawang" for more DVDs. I saw one in Cineleisure Orchard, and one in Funan IT Mall. They're mostly selling movies and music CDs, but I guess it won't hurt if you check them out.

You can also check HMV Orchard, it's at Hereen Plaza. The store is much larger than the one in Citylink Mall.

As for your question, I'm not a native. I just had a chance to visit Singapore a couple time this year, and I had a chance to explore around while I'm there.

You can call me Dan. :)

Hi i am from Singapore, let me try to give you some pointers.
If possible, get your dvd from LaserFlair beside Funan The I.T. Mall, it has the best price and widest selection. Sembawang Music Centre is ok, but the price is not as competitive compared to LaserFlair. Try avoiding Sim Lim Square for your DVD purchases, and please please please, never ever EVER go to Sim Lim Square to get your electronics products such as Digital Cam etc.

Hi fellas ! I usually purchase my DVDs from Gramaphone because they have a royalty
programme where for every $20.00 purchased you get a stamp on your royalty card
and upon completion one can exchange a CD below $20.00.

I do buy from Laserflair as they are quite fast with some titles which Gramaphone is slow and vice versa and as to pricing both are quite competitive. Seldom buy from HMV or Sembawang Music.

Anyway its nice to know that eedoon,eau,altfo and airbus are regular visitors to
Singapore and hope that you all enjoy your trips here, and the best thing is that
we are all Home Theater enthusiasts !

Thanz dan odyas and leon liew

As Dan suggested i went to gramophone, HMV and sembawang last week. The gramophone across the city hall MRT has many collections for documentary and the price is fabulous. I was searching for Walking for dino, walking with beast and walking with caveman they had it all in a pack at an amazing price of $89 but the same in HMV costs $112.
Also in grmophone they have few collections on VCD, gramophone in orchard (paragon)dont have much collection.
HMV has many collection on history related stuff like world war, alexander,egypt but the price is not fair.
I didnt check the laserflair, as loen liew suggested let me try laser flair this weekend.

But i am much satisfied with city hall gramophone. They had my favourite "Life of Mammals" and "Blue Planet" also.

All now i want to have is money to buy them all. Waiting for my salary to be credited ...

Thnz a lot guys without your help it wont be possible , and i might have roaming around the city for days to get those dvds

Actually LaserFlair and Gramophone has kinda merged if i recall correctly, get ur titles from this 2 place and look nowhere else, :)

Odyas, both Laserflair & Gramaphone are different entities.

For your reference, the outlets of those retailer we mention:

Blue Max:
Balestier Point
Plaza Singapura
Suntec City Mall
Chinatown Point
People's Park Complex
Blk 87 Marine Parade central

Laserflair:
Blk 720 Ang Mo Kio Ave 6
Blk 208 New Upper Changi Rd
Century Square
Funan IT Mall
IMM Building
LOT 1 Shopping Mall
Pioneer Mall
Sim Lim Square
Sun Plaza
Ten Mile Junction
Blk 178 Toa Payoh Central
Blk 102 Yishun Ave 5

Sembawang Music:
Northpoint Shopping Mall
Sun Plaza
Thomson Plaza
Junction 8
Compass Point
EastPoint Mall
Century Square
Bugis Junction
Cineleisure Orchard
Novena Square

Gramophone
Peninsula Plaza
Paragon building
Specialty Shopping Centre
UOB Centre

HMV
Hereen
Citylink Mall

Nice list xavierwan. There's one more Gramophone branch on UOB Centre 1 Raffles Place. I haven't checked the branch so I can't tell how their collection are. But from my experience, they have at least a few unique collection for each branch.

Thanks for sharing the info, Eedoon.
Have added it to the list.

All right, I went to Singapore last week and here's what I found:
Gramaphone has closed down its branch in Specialty Shopping Centre. It has been moved somewhere else in Orchard - I visited the store but I forgot what's the building name.

There's a nice store called Music Junction in Plaza Singapura. It has a decent DVD collection. I think they have another branch somewhere but I'm not so sure.

I also saw something called That's Music CD (or something like that) but I didn't visit any of their branch.

all of this talk of singapore is making me miss the place. albeit, i was there years ago, but damn, i want to go back.

Well I'm in Singapore again at the moment, and there's this new chain store around called MJ Multimedia - which have a pretty reasonable price and good collection. I'll probably post an update when I got back from here.

MJ Multimedia
Causeway Point
Heartland Mall - Kovan
Jurong Point
Parkway Parade
Plaza Singapura
Tampines Mall
Tiong Bahru Plaza
Vivo City

As an update, there's also one Sembawang Music branch at Plaza Singapura.